


Something To Be Thankful For

by bfketh



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Awkward Family Dinners, Grinding, M/M, Thanksgiving
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-26
Updated: 2015-11-26
Packaged: 2018-05-03 13:08:02
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,577
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5292035
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bfketh/pseuds/bfketh
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Eren would be perfectly happy if he was never invited to the Jaeger Family Thanksgiving again, and Mikasa knows someone that would be perfectly happy to help him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Something To Be Thankful For

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by [this post](http://bfketh.tumblr.com/post/133443793700/facelesshandslessmermaidgirl-janewithawhy).

Eren looked up from the notebook where he was ostensibly studying for winter finals when he heard Armin start laughing. “What’s so funny?”

“Oh - haha - this.” Armin turned his laptop slightly where it was sitting on the coffee table, and Eren sat up from his sprawled position on the couch.

“I am a 28-year-old felon with no high school degree, and a dirty old van one year younger than me painted like Eddie Van Halen’s guitar…” Eren started to read out loud over Armin’s shoulder. “...If you’d like to have me as your strictly platonic date for Thanksgiving, but have me pretend to be in a very long or serious relationship with you, to torment your family, I’m game.” Eren finished reading the screenshot of the ad and leaned back into the couch with a sigh. “Man, I wish that guy was in California and gay. I might actually take him up on the offer.”

“What?” Armin turned to look at him. “I thought you got along with your parents.”

“My parents aren’t the problem. Every year, they drag me along to the Jaeger family Thanksgiving, and every year I try to back out. Dad doesn’t want to make waves with the family, and Mom keeps saying I should ‘be the bigger person.’ I didn’t like going there when I was a kid, but the subtle little digs Grandpa and Aunt Beatrice started dropping ever since I came out are really pissing me off. Maybe if I can shock Grandpa enough, he’ll just ban me from coming to any more.”

“Is Beatrice the one that keeps getting facelifts?” Mikasa piped up from where she was typing into her phone across the room.

“Yeah. The last one is really bad. Her skin is pinned back so tight, she almost looks like the Joker.” Eren used his own fingers to pull the corners of his mouth and eyes back. He dropped his hands and sighed again. “If only I could find an offensive, pretend boyfriend of my own.”

“Well, he’s not a felon, but my cousin is free Thanksgiving.”

Eren’s head jerked up to stare at Mikasa. “Really?”

Mikasa nodded without looking up from her phone. “Yeah. He’s in his last year of grad school, and he can’t get Friday or Saturday off of work, so he’s stuck here. You’ve met him before. Levi?”

Eren scrunched his nose in thought. He had vague memories of a teenager staying with Mikasa’s parents for a while when he was ten. “He’s from New York, right?” It wasn’t a hard guess; except for her parents, most of Mikasa’s relatives on her dad’s side lived there, and they always flew out there every Thanksgiving.

“Mmhm.”

“...I don’t suppose he has a van?”

“No, but he does have a motorcycle.”

**~~~~~**

Eren looked out his grandparents’ window for about the tenth time. He’d texted Levi a few times back and forth setting everything up, and they’d agreed Levi should show up late for maximum impact, but he was still nervous that he wouldn’t find the place.

He heard a loud sniff beside him. “Really, if you _insist_ on bringing this friend of yours here, you’d think he could have the common decency to be on time.”

Eren plastered a fake smile on his face and turned to face his aunt. “Oh, I’m sure he’ll be here any minute. He probably just got a little lost.”

Before Beatrice could say anything else, there was a loud rumbling sound outside, and Eren looked out the window just in time to see a bike pull up - right onto Luthias Jaeger’s meticulously manicured lawn. Eren watched as a man dressed all in leather cut the engine and swung his leg over the bike. After pulling off his helmet, he walked purposefully up to the house, and Eren hastily excused himself from his aunt to make a beeline for the front door.

He got there just as the bell rang. Eren popped open the door and looked...down. Mikasa apparently hadn’t seen fit to warn Eren that Levi was nearly a full head shorter than him.

Levi, for his part, didn’t seemed fazed at all. He casually pulled off his sunglasses and tucked them into the pocket of his leather jacket, revealing steel blue eyes that regarded Eren impassively. “You gonna let me in, or were you hoping for a hello kiss first?”

“Oh, ah, sorry.” Eren stepped aside to let him pass. “Here, I’ll take your coat for you.”

“Thanks.” Levi took it off and handed it to Eren, revealing a charcoal gray button-up and a light blue and gray striped tie. Eren hung the jacket up in the hall closet and turned around to catch sight of Levi stretching. His shirt strained over his upper back, and Eren found his eyes traveling down said back to his narrow hips. He was suddenly very grateful for leather pants, and very regretful that Levi wasn’t there as his actual boyfriend. He then felt very puzzled and slightly embarrassed as he tried to figure out where that thought had come from.

He brought Levi around to introduce him to everyone, and then it was time to sit down to dinner.

 

“Do you want some stuffing, Levi?” Eren held out the bowl to him.

“Hm, maybe later. Of course, that’s really up to you.” Levi looked up at Eren from under his eyelashes, and Eren swallowed heavily as the pink tip of Levi’s tongue darted out to lick his lips.

A “hmph” from the head of the table drew Eren’s attention, and he turned to see his grandfather frowning behind his thick beard. “So, Eren’s...friend,” he began, and Eren felt his back teeth grind together at Luthias’s refusal to not only learn Levi’s name but also his ignoring their supposed relationship. He barely stopped himself from spouting off by reminding himself that Levi was only his pretend-boyfriend. His grandfather continued, “What is it you do for a living, exactly?”

“I’m a tattoo artist. Oh, and I volunteer.”

Beatrice, seated across the table from Grisha, pursed her mouth at the mention of tattoos. “Where is it you volunteer? An animal shelter?”

“Planned Parenthood.”

An uncomfortable silence fell on that side of the table. Out of the corner of his eye, Eren saw his mother’s mouth twitch up briefly.

One of the cousins tried to break the silence. “Is Ackerman a German name?”

“Jewish. My great-grandfather emigrated from Poland.”

“Oh. Warsaw?”

Levi stared at him, face impassive, before flatly answering, “No.”

Grisha started coughing into his napkin as Beatrice gaped at Levi, her face turning an interesting shade of purple. After a moment, he stopped and set his napkin back down. “Bea, I heard that William got accepted into medical school.”

“Oh, yes.” Beatrice’s mood took a complete 180, and she beamed down the table at her beady-eyed son. “We’re quite proud of him, aren’t we Herbert?”

“Yes, dear.” Eren’s uncle kept his gaze down at his plate as he answered, the words coming out like a conditioned reflex as his attention was more taken up by his food.

“Hm, it’s a shame Eren didn’t see fit to go into medicine,” Luthias said, with a pointed look at Eren. He was a doctor himself, as was Grisha, and he’d never made any secret that he’d expected Eren follow in their footsteps.

Grisha set down his fork. “Dad, we’ve been over this. Both Carla and I feel that Eren should be allowed to find his own path.”

“But environmental sciences?” Luthias scoffed. “If the boy wanted to flip burgers for the rest of his life, he could have done that without wasting four years at college.”

“Education is never a waste.”

The air became tense between the two men as they glared at each other.

“Anyway… Levi, Eren never did tell us, how did you both meet?” The question came from Grisha’s younger sister, Helen. Or, as Eren thought of her, the Good Aunt.

“Funny story. It was at Pride this summer. I was standing at the corner of Stockton, waiting for my friends to show, and sweating so much glitter body paint down my ass that I shit sparkles for a week.”

“Do you really think this is appropriate? There are children here.”

Levi just shot Beatrice a charming smile. “I haven’t even gotten to what happened _after_ the parade. Now, where was I?” He continued, ignoring Beatrice’s sputtering. “Oh, yes. Suddenly, this guy with these absolutely gorgeous eyes and a pissed-off scowl is standing next to me. Turns out he’d lost his own friends. I was surprised to find out later that one of those friends was my cousin.”

“I didn’t lose them; I turned my head for like five seconds to look at something and they ditched me,” Eren mumbled. Mikasa must have told Levi that story. He really had gotten separated from everyone else, but he never did meet Levi there.

“I was even more surprised to see how handsome the little brat I used to babysit had grown up to be.” The expression Levi turned on him was so convincingly fond that Eren felt his cheeks heating up.

He looked away and stabbed at his pie with a little more force than was strictly necessary. “Sh-shut up.”

After dinner, everyone moved into the livingroom to watch the game. Levi continued to answer the occasional question lobbed his way. He’d spent a couple summers working for Amnesty International, he was currently fundraising for Bernie Sanders - by the way, would you like to make a contribution, Beatrice? - he was in a community production of _Rent_ in high school. Basically, everything carefully calculated to have Eren’s aunt and grandfather muttering to each other about Levi being one of _those_ people. Hopefully it was enough that just the words “can Levi come?” would get Eren uninvited to Thanksgiving next year.

At around half-time, Eren got up and walked out to the back porch. As amusing as it was to see what color his aunt would turn next, he needed a break.

He startled a little when a moment later he heard the door behind him open, but relaxed when a glance over his shoulder revealed that it was only Levi. “Hey,” Eren greeted him. “Sorry about them.”

Levi chuckled. “You don’t exactly have a monopoly on shitty relatives kid. Ask Mika about Kenny sometime.”

Eren’s nose crinkled. “I’ve already heard some of the stories.”

Levi laughed again and sat down on the bench-swing. He patted the spot next to him, and Eren took it. They sat together in silence for a while, enjoying the peace and quiet. “You holding up okay?”

Eren shrugged. “Yeah. I mean, they’re more horrible than usual, but that’s kinda the point.” Eren picked at the seam of his trousers. “So, how much of all that you were saying was true?”

Levi leaned back in the seat and crossed his legs. Which, Eren couldn’t help but notice, made the leather go taut over what seemed to be a very muscular thigh. “Most of it. I’m not a tattoo artist though; I’m a grad student in engineering, and I work part-time at Game Shit. Bastards are making me work Black Friday.”

“Oh, so you really did all that volunteering stuff? That’s cool.”

“Yeah.” Levi pushed his bangs away from his face and looked away from Eren, clearing his throat awkwardly. “And I, uh, really did notice you at Pride this summer.”

Eren gaped at him. “You did?”

“I saw Mikasa come up to you before I’d made up my mind to say anything, and then it just felt too awkward to talk to you.” There was a patch of the floor that must have been absolutely fascinating, judging by how intently Levi was studying it. “Ater that, I must have asked her a few too many questions about you, because she set this up.”

Eren snorted, and then he started laughing. “Oh, man,” he managed when he could pause for breath. “I should have known something was up when she went along with it. Usually ‘Kasa tries a lot harder to talk me out of my stupid ideas.” He wiped a stray tear away from his eye and looked over to see that Levi was finally looking back up at him, and Eren grinned and leaned closer to him. “So… If what you were saying was the truth, does that mean you really do think my eyes are gorgeous?”

Levi blinked once, then twice, as his gaze flickered back-and-forth between Eren’s eyes. Then, a smile twitched up the corner of his mouth. “My lips are sealed.”

“Good idea,” Eren murmured, before leaning down and lightly brushing his lips against the upturned corner of Levi’s lips. He pulled back slightly to make sure it was okay, and when Levi didn’t protest or move away, he kissed him properly, one hand coming up to cradle the back of Levi’s head. His fingers brushed against Levi’s undercut, and Levi let out a breathy little moan against Eren’s lips. His own hands settled on Eren’s back, and Eren rested his free hand on Levi’s hip.

That was as far as things got when there was the “click” of the door opening, and a nasally voice rang out, “Eren Nicolas Jaeger, just what in the Lord’s name do you think you’re doing?!”

Eren groaned - and not in a sexy way - and brought his forehead to rest against Levi’s shoulder. He whispered, “I hate her. So. Fucking. Much.”

Levi gave him a comforting pat on his back.

“Eren, I had really hoped you would have more respect than that while you were in my house.” Beatrice had stared at Eren and Levi with a disapproving look on her pinched face until they had gotten up and returned to the rest of the family, where she had immediately started whispering to her father. Who was now lecturing Eren as if he were still five years old and had been caught drawing on the walls in permanent marker.

“What the fuck?! We _kissed_!” Eren threw up his hands, exasperated. Grisha and Carla both started to step toward him, Carla shooting Luthias a look that seemed to be trying to skin him alive with the power of her glare alone, but Eren waved them off. “Last year, I walked in on Will’s girlfriend kneeling in the den  with ‘Little Willy’ _in her mouth_ and the twins,” Eren motioned at Aunt Helen’s ten-year-olds, “were with me, and all you said was, ‘Boys will be boys,’ but I _kiss_ my boyfriend, fully clothed, and you act like I knifed someone while fighting over the candied yams. You know what? Fuck you.”

Luthias gaped at him, mouth opening and shutting, before his brows drew together like an angry ape, and he growled out, “How _dare_ you speak to me like that, you little-”

“Lou,” Eren’s grandmother, a tiny, soft-spoken woman, interrupted her husband with an unusually firm tone. “Put a sock in it, you old goat.”

Shortly after that, Levi offered to give Eren a ride home. His parents walked out with them, and while Levi was digging his spare helmet out of the panniers, Grisha pulled him aside. “Did you really have to kiss him, son?” Eren’s mouth dropped open in shock, but Grisha continued before Eren could say anything. “You just cost me a bet with your mother.”

“...What?”

Grisha adjusted his glasses. “Well, I said that you were probably just having a friend help you annoy your grandfather.”

“And _I_ said it was obvious that boy was smitten with you.” Carla walked over to them and hooked her arm with Grisha’s.

Eren felt his face heat up. “W-what?”

“It’s the way he looks at you. A mother can tell.” While Eren stood there, flustered, Carla lifted up onto her toes to place a kiss on his cheek. “I think Levi’s ready for you. Be safe, sweetie.”

Eren looked over his shoulder to see Levi leaning against his bike and watching them, a helmet in each hand. He held one out to Eren when he walked over, and Eren buckled it on before making sure his jacket was zipped up tight and sliding onto the pillion behind Levi. Levi reached for the ignition switch, then turned slightly to Eren. “You ever ridden a bike before?”

“Yeah, I had one when I was sixteen. I sold it a couple years ago, though.”

Levi nodded, satisfied, and hit the switch. The bike roared to life between Eren’s legs, and he wrapped his arms tight around Levi’s waist as he kicked off and pulled out into the road.

**~~~~~**

It wasn’t a long ride back to the apartment Eren shared with Armin and Mikasa, and it wasn’t particularly cold out, but, even with Levi’s body shielding him from most of the wind, Eren was glad when Levi pulled into the guest parking. They both stood around the bike awkwardly until Eren cleared his throat. “Uh, did you want to come up? For a hot drink or...something?”

Levi pulled his helmet off his head and shook out his hair. He slid his sunglasses back into his jacket pocket and grinned. “Yeah, I think I could go for ‘something.’”

“Ah, okay then.” Eren led the way up the stairs and into his apartment. He’d barely gotten the door shut behind them and his coat and shoes off before Levi was pressing against his chest. Eren’s back hit the wall, and he looked down to see Levi’s face inches from his own.

“So, do you want to pick up where we were interrupted?”

Eren swallowed against a throat gone dry and nodded, his tongue unconsciously darting out to wet his lips. Levi reached up and wrapped his arms around Eren’s neck to pull his head down. Eren met his mouth eagerly, his hands settling on Levi’s hips. Levi surged up closer toward him, and when Eren realized that Levi was lifting himself onto his toes to reach him better, he slid a little further down the wall. He moved his grip to Levi’s ass, and, yeah, he was definitely grateful for leather pants as he dug his fingers into the smooth material, feeling the firm, round flesh underneath yielding just slightly to his touch.

Their hips pressed together, and Levi broke off the kiss to lean his head against Eren’s shoulder. “Fuck,” he breathed out, and Eren felt a small surge of pride at how rough his voice already sounded.

Eren hid a grin against Levi’s throat and slid his thigh between the other man's legs. When he tightened his hold on Levi’s ass and pulled him closer, a low moan rumbled in Eren's ear, and, fuck, he really wanted to hear that again. Levi latched onto the skin under Eren’s jaw, nipping and sucking urgently as Eren started rolling his hips against him.

“Shit. Shit, Eren, don’t stop.”

He grunted in acknowledgement and turned his head to suck a dark mark into Levi’s neck. Levi was now moving to meet him, pressing him harder into the wall, and Eren’s pants were getting uncomfortably tight, but at the same time, it felt so good.

Levi’s hand tangled itself in Eren’s hair, pulling him down into another kiss. This one was sloppy, more them panting into each other’s mouths, and Levi’s movements were growing more insistent and less rhythmic against him. Then he let out another low, long moan, which Eren eagerly swallowed. Levi’s hips stuttered and then jerked hard against Eren's thigh, and his entire body stiffened in Eren’s arms. Eren groaned into Levi’s mouth as Levi gave a sharp tug on his hair, and his fingers tightened on Levi’s ass, probably hard enough to bruise.

Eren’s vision went white behind his eyes, and when his head stopped spinning from his release he found he’d slid all the way down the wall to sit on the floor, Levi straddling his lap with his arms still wrapped around Eren’s neck.

“What…” Levi trailed off to catch his breath. “What the hell was that?”

“I don’t know, but it was nice.” Eren hesitated, an edge of uncertainty creeping into him as he looked into Levi’s face. “...Wasn’t it?”

“Hmm.” Levi made an affirmative sound and leaned his head against Eren’s shoulder. A moment later, however, he was sitting further upright and frowning. “Also kind of gross.” He looked around the apartment. “Where’s your bathroom?”

“Here.” Eren stood, urging Levi up with him. They both staggered a little, and then Eren grinned, his bottom lip catching in his teeth. He held his hand out to Levi, feeling suddenly shy in spite of what they’d just done. He’d almost pulled his hand back, but Levi reached out before he could and laced their fingers together. Eren felt his grin stretch wider, giddiness that he could probably half-blame on the orgasm coursing through his veins.

Levi looked up to meet his eyes and seemed to freeze in place.

Eren tilted his head. “Levi? Something wrong?”

Levi just shook his head, a small smile playing around his mouth. He tugged Eren closer and leaned up, his free hand resting on Eren’s chest. Eren found his head automatically bending down to meet him, and he felt Levi’s lips move against his own as Levi whispered, “So fucking gorgeous.”

The kiss they shared then was the softest and sweetest yet, and Eren felt himself smiling into it.

He’d have to remember to thank Mikasa.


End file.
